JOHN SHEARER
Born and raised in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, multi-Platinum country star Chris Young has always been a familiar face in Music City.
But if you catch him out and about these days, you might hardly recognize the homegrown hero. About 60 pounds lighter than he was this time last year, Young has got a new look, a new creative drive, and a noticeable glow—a shift that also shows in his soon-to-come ninth studio album. But despite the transformation, he’s adamant there was no big secret behind it. He just got tired of the way things were.
“Everybody asks what made me get in shape, and I would love to say, ‘Yeah, a motivational cat post did it,’ or ‘I saw this one photo and that was it,’” he explains with a laugh. “But it was actually a combination of things. I was just feeling run down, honestly. I was probably in the worst shape I’ve been as an adult.”
To be fair, a lot happens when you’ve been in the spotlight almost 20 years. Added up, Young has now spent about half of his life in the public eye and despite the recent changes, he’s always looked the country star part.
Gifted with one of the modern era’s finest and richest baritones, Young famously parlayed his Middle Tennessee roots into recognition as an actual Nashville Star in 2006, winning the now- defunct TV singing competition and becoming a steady presence on the charts. Signed to RCA Nashville, he’s amassed five billion career streams and 24 RIAA certifications for Gold and Silver-level sales, while also becoming a Grand Ole Opry member, a perennial headliner, and the owner of 13 No. 1 singles, including 11 as a songwriter.
Early last year he was coming off another successful album cycle. His eighth studio album, Famous Friends, featured back-to-back charttopppers (the title track and “At The End of The Bar”) and collabs with Kane Brown, Mitchell Tenpenny, and Lauren Alaina. But something was bothering him. Aiming to avoid a dreaded mid-career rut, Young took a hard look at everything, including his work-life balance, his management team, and eating habits. By springtime he was on a new path. It included a strict calorie-to-protein ratio, and fiendishly tough workouts with NFL trainer Jeremy Holt.
“All the guys that work out with him are younger and stronger than I’ve ever been, and I’m not a weak or small human,” Young jokes.
Once his new lifestyle built up some momentum, it became a feedback loop of positivity.
“Everybody wants to know the secret, but it started one piece at a time. It’s been a year of professional and personal growth that sort of snowballed into, ‘Hey, I’m really enjoying seeing the results of this, and I don’t want to stop, so let’s keep grinding,’” he explains.
“When you work on things a little bit at a time, as long as you stick to it, you’ll look up six months later and it’s like, ‘Oh, a lot has really massively changed, and it didn’t feel like it at the time,” he says. “For me it was a journey of inches, and now I find myself working more and enjoying myself more at the same time. It’s gotten to a point where I can be in a video with my shirt off and don’t feel weird. And I don’t think anybody’s going to complain about me not being overweight.”
You probably won’t hear fans complaining about Young’s new album, either, since his offstage achievements have translated into renewed creative energy. Later this month he’ll announce Young Love & Saturday Nights as his ninth studio album. The new outing parallels the hitmaker’s personal evolution.
Featuring a stamina-boosting 18 tracks, it’s Young’s longest album to date, and lists Young as co-writer on all but three songs. Meanwhile, Young also produces three of the new tracks solo—another career first—and returns to co-produce all the rest alongside frequent collaborators Chris DeStefano and Corey Crowder.
JOHN SHEARER
A nostalgic, romantic project swirling with the milestones and missteps of small-town American life, it’s a warm, inviting set still rooted in the sound of Young’s six-piece touring band, but finds him throwing a few sonic curveballs as well. All the while, that acclaimed baritone is at its strongest in years, with Young admitting he felt totally “unrestricted” in the vocal booth, perhaps another byproduct of his newfound fitness. Overall, he says it shows an artist getting back in touch with the important elements of a life well lived, and all the many forms that can take.
“Albums are all a snapshot of time, right?” he explains. “This year I was really introspective. I’ve worked a lot on myself. I was in the gym a lot more; I was in the studio a lot more; and I was traveling and working toward this new project— changing things around in my career. There’s been a lot of work that I’ve put in this year, whether it was personal, professional, or even just into my friendships, making sure I was taking time to see people I care about. And I think that probably shows a little bit.”
Young has already shared a few songs, including the title track “Young Love & Saturday Nights.” A heartland tribute with a sense of forever-young passion, it’s a tune that captures the feeling of endless possibility Young has been enjoying. Along with his vibrant vocal performance, the song’s defining feature is the distinctive guitar hook, inspired directly by David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel.”
The progressive rock icon might not be the first person you’d think of when designing a country-radio contender, but then again, Young is in his shaking-things-up era.
“I fell in love with it because the minute it starts, I was like, ‘Well, that’s “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie, obviously,’” he says, noting Bowie is credited as writer alongside Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley, and Josh Thompson. “But [the writers] were like, ‘Just wait for it.’ The fact that they created a brand-new song with that iconic melody, I just thought that was a really cool way to go about it.”
Elsewhere, the album kicks off with a ringing acoustic guitar and an attention-grabbing synthetic hook, as “Looking for You” offers a tribute to finding love where you least expect it. With “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” Young takes a fresh look at a classic theme long ago given a bad rap, proving you actually can teach an old dog new tricks.
Meanwhile, windows-down and cranked-up anthems like “Everybody Grew Up” celebrate the glory days of self-proclaimed hometown heroes. And as a hopeless romantic who first broke out with “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song),” Young makes sure his country love songs are present and accounted for.
JOHN SHEARER
With a pounding pulse, sweeping strings, and a desire-filled delivery, the early release “Right Now” exudes strong-and-steady confidence even when exploring the “in-between relationship phase” that is often relatable. The album closing “Down,” sees Young bringing that theme to its logical conclusion, reflecting on the force-of- nature power of a love that rolls in like a storm and leaves just as fast. There’s a “fine line between forever and a beautiful disaster,” Young sings, his voice arching like lightning across a hot summer night.
“This chorus hits like a sledgehammer. It sounds like a big old hit,” he boldly proclaims. “I love it because it’s a different take on a breakup song. Not every relationship ends the same way, and I think that’s why I end up writing so many love songs. It’s one of the hallmarks of an album of mine: I’ve got to have a sexy song, a breakup song, and a wedding song because that’s life. Everybody goes through those different phases.”
For Young, this has been a phase of growth, and it has him looking back at the past two decades with a sense of pride for how far he’s come, both personally and professionally.
“It’s been a year of work-life balance for me, and I think that’s something everybody gets to at different times in their life,” he says. “I’ve worked harder than I ever have before on multiple facets of my life and my career. But I’ve also enjoyed my life and my career as much as I ever have, which is a really cool place to be.”